pretend like it don't entice you
by UnluckyAmulet
Summary: Humanstuck!AU. Where's the fun in life without a few risks? CroVris, drabble.


Disclaimer: Do not own.

Is it obvious Vriska is my patron troll? It should be with how much I write about how. XD I stumbled across an ide for this pairing on tumblr and I just loved it; Vriska's badass enough to give Cronus a kicking when he deserves is, but insecure and flawed enough to tolerate him in the first place. She's kind of like a younger Meenah, I think, so he'd be into it.

Enjoy!

* * *

"I hate you."

"Sure you do, sweetheart."

His name was Cronus Ampora.

Everybody Vriska knew warned her away from him (well, everyone who cared enough to, anyway). Vriska was undeterred. She couldn't really take it seriously- John was hardly an expert on romance, Kanaya was a busy-body who got her kicks out of telling Vriska what to do and Karkat liked to think he was some kind of supreme expert on relationships, despite the train-wreck that was his love life.

Vriska could see he was a douchebag- swanning around with his ridiculous slicked-back hair, unlit cigarette dangling from his lips and his ridiculous shirts with their sleeves ripped off. He hit on anybody and anything, but it never seemed to deter him when he was knocked back (sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively.) Porrim's pretty mouth with curl up in a disdainful sneer, her lip piercing glinting on her lip and her eyes glimmering with irritation. Meenah took a less conventional approach and usually just socked him in the face. Vriska's seen it enough times to be somewhat fascinated by how Meenah plants her feet on the floor and one, two, three PUNCHES, her twin pigtails flying behind her, fist usually crashing into the Ampora's nose.

He'll cup it and whine at her about what a jerk she is, but he never loses the tone of admiration.

She doesn't know why she notices this, but she does.

She guesses it reminds her a bit of herself. That stubborn, single-minded pursuit of something, regardless of whether or not you really need or deserve it. Vriska used to be like that with Tavros, then John, but she eventually decided they were simply too boring for her to be wasting her time with. Anyway, both of them eventually stopped falling for her tricks and got into some nice, _stable_ relations.

Boring.

"So you're Serket's little sister?"

Vriska glanced behind her hatefully. Cigarette smoke spilled from between Cronus' lips as he spoke and she's seized with a weird impulsive urge to grab his stupid face and _kiss him_ just to find out what the smoke tastes like. She's always wanted to smoke (because she's always felt like she has something to prove), but she had a few annoying allergies as a kid and even being near smoke in those days made her asthma worse. She's tried very hard for a very long time to make everyone forget nerdy, pushover Vriska and damned if she's going to remind anybody of her _loser days_ now.

"No shit, Ampora." she replies, turning around and planting her hands on her hips. (She does this on purpose; Cronus' eyes briefly flick appreciatively over her and she feels weirdly vindicated.) "And you're Eridan's loser brother, right?"

Cronus looks wounded, or he pretends to.

"That was just harsh, Serket." he says, shaking his head like he finds Vriska amusing.

"The name's _Vriska."_ She snaps, because she doesn't want to be associated as Aranea's kid sister. "Try to get that through your nicotine-addled brain."

"I heard you were feisty, sweetheart," Cronus smirks and she finds herself _blushing, what the hell?_ "Nice to know you didn't disappoint."

Vriska smirks this time, because two can play at that game. She jerks a thumb at the cigarette in his mouth, tempting her like a thief drawn to a jewel.

"Whatever. So are you gonna give me one of those, or not?"

He laughs at her again and she clenches her fist, although she doesn't know if it's to prepare or stop herself from punching him, but he hands it over, dangling it above her outstretched palm. He tells her he won't let go unless she meets him outside, where the smokers used to hang out before they got chased away. She tells him _whatever_ and doesn't even thank him, stuffing the cigarette into her pocket, but she knows that not even meteors falling from the sky would stop her finding him later.

All through lunchtime she's smirking mysteriously, despite numerous subtle (and not-so-subtle) attempts from the people she begrudgingly calls friends to find out what she's so pleased with herself about, but she doesn't spill. She sticks around indoors for lunch, though; having no intention of skipping class just to meet some douchebag she thinks is an idiot. (Vriska may be considered one of the biggest bitches in their sorry excuse for a school, but she's still near the top of the year in terms of grades and she intends to keep it that way.)

Outside, Cronus is cupping a cigarette, desperately trying to light a cigarette in the curl of his fist as the wind continuously puffs it out. Vriska openly laughs at him and it feels good to be laughing at him. He grins when he sees her and his teeth make Vriska think of sharks.

When she gets home, her lipstick is smudged from the filter and she has stains on her fingers, but her mom isn't around to see them and Aranea is holed up in her room with her books, the phone twirled around her fingers as she yacks excessively on to Porrim/Meenah/whoever it is. Vriska is in a good enough mood not to deliberately step on the cord with her muddied boots as she slinks into her room and shuts the door, lighting up another cigarette just for the extra kick out of smoking in the house, even if she does crack the window after a minute or two. (The smell still makes her cough a bit, but she's getting better at repressing it.)

The thrill of smoking inevitably wears off, especially when her body keeps rebelling against the damn things, so when Cronus nonchalantly tells her he has some booze stashed away, she doesn't hesitate before she follows him, telling him it'd better not just be "cheap, pansy-ass shit you could get anywhere" and he assures her it isn't.

Vriska Serket isn't even sure when they ended up exploring each other's whiskey-flavored mouths later, his hands exploring her hips the same way his eyes were only weeks before, but she doesn't care. This whole thing with Ampora is a temporary thing at best, an experiment, proof for Vriska that unlike the other girls, she can handle the sleazy Ampora no problem and that she's still a badass even when she's slumming it with such a total loser, obviously.

Even though she sometimes blushes still when Cronus smirks at her and cigarettes still make her cough and burn her throat, Vriska is satisfied that at least she isn't bored.


End file.
